I’m in my second week in India, where I am helping fellow Prinn-group graduate student Anita Ganesan deploy her gas chromatograph to Darjeeling, a town high on a ridge in West Bengal in the foothills of the Himalayas (Anita has a blog now!). It’s quite a trek to get to the Bose Institute where her instrument will be housed. We spent a few days adjusting to the change in time and culture in the hectic city of Kolkata. A haze hung over the city, making the day seem darker and the nights lighter, and there was a constant smell of burning. It was not unpleasant, but the concerns about the impact of particulate levels on air quality and health that we are taught in the classroom were made real. Two million people in this city and its surroundings breathe this local atmosphere daily, until it is exported to the globe. Continue reading →

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